Midnight Frost

Logan—and I finally got the idea I needed so badly.
    I closed my backpack and put it on my shoulders again. Then, I wrapped the net around Logan. At first, I didn’t think there was going to be enough seaweed to cover him, but every time I reached down, there was more and more of the net to use. Finally, I looped the last bit of it around his shoulders. I propped him up into a sitting position, wrapped one arm around his waist, and put my shoulder under his. Then, I drew in a breath and lifted him. To my surprise, I was able to pick him up as if he weighed no more than a couple of dumbbells.
    “Come on, Spartan,” I said. “Back on your feet.”
    “Okay . . .” Logan mumbled, his eyes fluttering open before sliding shut again. “Okay, I’m up . . .”
    Slowly, I started down the trail once more. Oh, it was still awkward, with Logan half-clinging, half-hanging off me and me trying to keep the net from slipping off his body, but he was much, much lighter than before. I could at least hobble down the mountain, even though I was moving much, much slower than before. Still, every step I took was one that got us closer to the bottom.
    “Thank you, Ran,” I murmured, although I doubted the goddess was even listening to or interested in my troubles.
    I don’t know how long I guided Logan down the trail. It might have been five minutes, it might have been an hour. Time ceased to have any meaning. There was just cold and snow and wind and trees. More than once, my boots slipped in the snow, and I almost sent both of us sliding down the trail, but I managed to stop myself before my feet went out from under me.
    I’d just kept myself from dumping us in the snow for the fifth time when I realized there was something on the trail ahead of me.
    I froze, Logan hanging off my side like some sort of weird, extra limb, and squinted through the flakes. What was that shape up ahead? For a moment, I thought it might be a Reaper, someone who’d been stationed on the back side of the mountain to finish us off if we made it this far down the trail, but the shape didn’t seem dark and slender enough for that. It looked . . . big. That was all I could really tell about it. Maybe a boulder had fallen across the path, like Rachel had said. Well, wouldn’t that just be terrific.
    I sighed, tightened my grip on Logan and the net, and surged forward once more. Maybe it would just be a tree or rock that I could find some way to get over or around.
    I’d almost reached the shape—whatever it was—when a sharp, fierce screech cut through the swirl of snow.
    I froze again. I’d lowered my head against the cold, looking down at the trail, so I had a perfect view of the lion’s paw right in front of me. It was easily larger than my hand and featured long, sharp, curved claws that glittered like ebony against the white snow.
    I swallowed and slowly raised my head.
    A gryphon stood in the middle of the trail, looming over me and Logan.

Chapter 31
    I stared up at the huge creature.
    Lion’s body, eagle head, bronze fur, wings, and eyes. The creature looked even larger than the Black roc that Vivian and Agrona had flown away on, probably a male, from the size of him. I stared down at his claws again, before my gaze drifted up to his curved beak. It too glinted like ebony, despite the snow.
    Finally, I raised my gaze to the creature’s eyes. They glowed like bright, warm, bronze lanterns in the midst of the swirling snow. I stared into the orbs, but I didn’t see any trace of Reaper red in the creature’s eyes. So this was a wild gryphon then, and not one the Reapers had caught and forced to serve them. I didn’t know if that made things better or worse. Because a wild gryphon could kill me and Logan as easily as a Reaper-controlled one could. Claws were still claws, after all.
    “Crikey,” Vic said from his scabbard. “He’s a big fellow, isn’t he?”
    “Sshh,” I said, talking out of the side of my mouth. “Don’t make him angry.”
    The gryphon stood in the middle of the trail, staring at me. Just . . . staring at me, as though I were some sort of bug he was examining. After a few more seconds of scrutiny, the gryphon’s gaze flicked to Logan. The creature studied the Spartan with the same intensity before his eyes dropped down to Logan’s side. He could probably smell the blood that was no doubt still seeping through the bandages I’d wrapped around the Spartan.
    I tensed, then turned my body so that I was standing